Futures Unknown
by sugar free vanilla
Summary: Tiny, fluffy Season 4 AU oneshot. Barely. Rick and Kate get together (maybe sorta kinda) without Marlowe and Miller's beautiful, beautiful angst.


**So, this is the first fanfiction I've ever published. It's a oneshot, barely... Just a fluffy little encounter that somehow seeped out of my brain and onto Google Drive. Season 4 AU, not sure whereabouts; definitely before ****_47 Seconds _****but aside from that, wherever it best fits in your mind should work. No spoilers to be found! I haven't proofread this and wrote it in about half an hour, so forgive any glaring grammar mistakes and please point them out to me so I can correct them.**

**Please review; this is my first fic that I've put anywhere. It'd be wonderful to hear what you may think!**

8am, and Beckett had already been perched at her desk for over an hour. With a sigh, she dropped the forms she had been rifling through onto the polished surface of her desk. Paperwork exhausted her in a way that even the most trying of cases didn't. Sitting in the precinct, endlessly filing reports didn't provide the adrenalin fieldwork did. Leaning her elbows against the wood, she closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips to her hair, massaging her scalp. And like they always did, in moments when she let down her guard even a little, her thoughts strayed to _him. _

He hadn't been around in a couple of days - Gina was after him for an outline for the next Nikki Heat.

_Gina. _She felt a coil of _something_ grow in her stomach. Something she recognised absolutely but refused to acknowledge. Something that made her feel a little sick, a little hurt, more than a little angry and absolutely not at all like she wanted to divest Richard Castle of his clothing and drag him into her bed and make it so he can't remember his own name, let alone his ex wife's existence. Definitely not.

"Beckett?" His voice sounded in her ears as if her thoughts of him had summoned him to her side. She barely concealed her startled jump at the sudden noise but managed, slowly raising her head from the desk to find him standing over her. "Good morning detective." His astonishingly blue eyes crinkled at the edges as he proffered her a coffee with a friendly smile.

Friendly? God, the things she wanted to do to him, with him, were anything but that.

Fighting against the cheshire cat grin that pulled at her facial muscles at the sight of him, she accepted the hot drink with a small upturning of her lips and a murmured thanks.

"So, what are you doing here Castle? I thought you were busy with the next Nikki Heat."

"Eh, inspiration struck and I got it done early. Sent it into Black Pawn last night to see what they think." He said offhandedly. "Got bored. Thought I'd come watch you do paperwork."

Beckett took a sip of coffee, hiding her smile behind the cup. She raised her eyebrow at him. "How about you actually help me out with it? For once."

He wrinkled his nose. "Where's the fun in that?"

She rolled her eyes at him as he settled into his chair beside her desk.

* * *

"Stop staring. It's creepy." His eyes had been on her since he had sat down, maybe twenty minutes prior.

In honesty, she found it anything but 'creepy' as she had called it. It was flattering and tantalising and heated, his gaze on her skin. And it made her wonder why she hadn't given in to the way she felt yet, so she could unabashedly stare at him the same way.

Stupid wall.

"Katherine Houghton Beckett!" His tone was melodramatic as he gasped at her affrontedly. "Are you calling me a creep?"

"Unequivocally." She replied with a quirk of her lips and a cocked brow.

"Oh, that is so _hot._" Castle groaned. "Your vocabulary is entirely too sexy for your own good." He declared.

Unable to conceal her laughter, Beckett shook her head at him. "If you think my vocabulary is sexy Castle, wait until you see my tattoo."

"Is that an invitation, Detective?" His eyebrows waggle comically and she purses her lips to hide her amusement.

"Maybe." Beckett feels a fluttering in her chest as he meets her shy gaze, a spark blatantly visible in his blue eyes. She hasn't been so forthcoming with him before. He'd not expected her to dignify his question with a reply, let alone one that might lead to places he had been waiting years to get to. Places she wasn't ready for. Not until now. "Soon, Castle. Very soon, they'll be down."

"Your… walls?" His question is hesitant, unsure what his partner is implying.

With a smirk, Beckett leans in close. "Those too." Fighting the flush spreading across her skin at the proximity, she maintains her unflustered facade. "But if you want to see the tattoo… Certain articles of clothing are gonna have to drop as well." She whispers in Castle's ear before snapping up and sashaying towards the break room, leaving him gaping after her.

That evening, he knocks on her door with a bouquet of flowers and stammering nervously, asks her to dinner. (_Adorable_, Beckett can't help but think as she accepts his clumsy suggestion.)

He offers her his arm and she takes it and together, in companionable silence, they step into futures unknown.


End file.
